


Join Me in London

by lockwoodstie (PilotInTheStars)



Series: A Cannon [2]
Category: Lockwood & Co. - Jonathan Stroud
Genre: F/M, Gen, Meet the Crew, Reconciliation, Sisters, discussions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-15
Updated: 2020-02-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:34:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22741834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PilotInTheStars/pseuds/lockwoodstie
Summary: Lucy invites Mary to travel down to London for a couple days.
Relationships: (Background) Lucy Carlyle/Anthony Lockwood, Lucy Carlyle & Mary Carlyle
Series: A Cannon [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1637488
Comments: 5
Kudos: 31





	Join Me in London

**Author's Note:**

> I have been working on this fic since August, and it has certainly been a labor of love for me. 
> 
> Thank you of course to the Lockwood and Co Discord, who gave me immense support while writing this fic. <3
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

Mary came to visit me in London for a couple days. I asked her in a letter I wrote, and she found a time that worked for both of us, and she bought her ticket.

Lockwood accompanied me to the train station the morning of her arrival. His hand was holding mine. There was a bite in the morning, but Lockwood always managed to keep the cold away.

I’d been quiet for most of our journey to the station, and he finally said something. 

“Are you nervous?”

“A bit.” I had lost count of the months since I’d seen Mary- last time I’d seen her was sneaking out of the house a day early when I went to visit her up North. We didn’t send letters for a month after that. “It’s been awhile since I’ve seen her.” Perhaps too long.

But she had seemed happy to come and visit- she’d always wanted to go to London and now was the opportune time. 

“Things will be alright, Luce.” He smiled that familiar smile and I felt myself warm up from my head to my toes. 

We found the platform we needed to be on, and I leaned up and kissed him gently. His hands found my waist and we stood like that for a minute.

“It’ll be alright,” I said, reassuring myself." 

He nodded and we both turned our heads to see the train pulling in. It took a couple more minutes for people to start descending onto the platform.

Mary stepped off the train, her eyes gazing around until she met mine. She smiled, adjusted her bag in her hand, and walked quickly over to me. 

I’d be lying if it wasn’t a strange moment. Was there a need for a hello when we had sent dozens of letters? Was there something unrecognizable about one of us the other could see? Something that had changed during those two years apart?

The first thing Mary did was give me a hug. I wish I could say it was happy and sisterly, the most joyful of reunions after so much time apart.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t. Not really. In all honesty, it was a little awkward. 

“It’s nice to see you, Lucy. I missed you.” She smiled. 

“I’m happy you could come down and visit.”

“I’ve always wanted to visit London.” She finally recognized who was behind me.

Lockwood stood patiently there, smiling, his hands in his pockets. My mind was functioning at the moment, and he extended a hand to Mary. “Anthony Lockwood, it’s nice to meet you, Mary.”

Mary shook his hand. “It’s nice to meet you as well. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

During the trip back to Portland Row, we all made small talk, and Lockwood and Mary got along well.

“Ah, right, here we are, 35 Portland Row.”

Lockwood opened the door and we stepped inside. I took Mary’s bag and set it by the door, so I could show her to the guest room- Jessica’s old room, up on the landing.

Mary kept glancing at the crystal skull lamp sitting on the table next to the door. Perhaps going up the stairs, past the line of masks and other strange artifacts wasn't the smartest at this time.

“Would you like tea, Mary?” I asked.

“Oh, I’d love some.”

We made our way to the kitchen, and to the kitchen table, where we had recently placed a new thinking cloth and an extra chair for Mary. George had already doodled something in the corner that I couldn’t decipher. He’d likely tell us when he got back from the Archives. 

I put the kettle on and Mary sat down at the table. Lockwood took the seat next to mine.

“You have a lovely house.”

“Ah, thank you. It was my parents’.”

I quickly glanced at Lockwood, who was straightening the biscuit tray in the center of the table. He looked up and I quickly looked away. 

He seemed fairly unperturbed.

Holly walked in at that moment. 

“Oh,” I said quickly getting up. Mary got up as well and Holly smiled and stepped over. \

“Mary, this is Holly. Holly, this is my sister, Mary.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Mary. Lucy mentioned you were coming to visit.”

“It’s nice to meet you as well.”

Hot water was poured, tea bags were placed, and everyone sat around the table together. 

“So, Mary, where do you work?” Holly asked. My sister set down her mug.

“I work for a real estate agency. I’m a secretary for them.”

I felt someone reach under the table and hold my hand. I looked up to my other side and Lockwood gave me a reassuring smile.

An, _it’s all fine. It’ll be all fine._

* * *

Mary and I went all around the city the next day. She glanced into one shop and took my hand. I recognized it as the one I had gone two a little while back, when I went shopping for the Fittes party. It felt like absolutely ages ago.

“Oh, it’s been so long since I’ve been dress shopping.” Mary eyed a red dress in the racks, and pulled it out. “This would look pretty on you.” She smiled, handed it to me, and pushed me towards the dressing room. 

I tried it on and stepped out to where Mary was sitting on a bench waiting for me. She beamed, and then her eyes darted down and I did the same, and I saw the necklace, that shining blue sapphire that Lockwood had given me so many months ago. It was usually tucked underneath my sweater, out of sight and out of mind to everyone but me. 

It was clearly visible now.

“Huh, what’s that?”

I flushed.

“Oh.” _What did I say?_ “It was a gift from Lockwood. To me.”

“Looks expensive.”

“It’s from his family.”

Mary smiled and took a step closer. “Well, the dress is lovely, but I certainly think the necklace looks lovelier. I had a feeling about you two.”

I flushed and she smiled.

“But I do like the dress,” she added.

I looked around. I wish I had Holly or Mary’s eye for these types of things. It just wasn’t something I’d ever been used to. It had already been over a year since I’d bought that blue dress, which now hung lonely in the deep recesses of my wardrobe upstairs.

“Hmm, try this one.”

* * *

We played board games that afternoon before an early dinner, an evening off after George and Lockwood had tackled a small case the day before, and because it was Holly’s mother’s birthday, and they were having a party for her at home.

We tried playing Monopoly, but George kept drawing “Haunted” Chance Cards, lowering the values of his monopolies, even after we reshuffled the deck multiple times.

In Scrabble, George killed it, as usual when playing that game, though Mary was a fierce opponent, better than Holly, Lockwood, and I put together. 

In a rush to make the most of time before Holly went to her mother’s, we played Old Maid with a deck of cards, and Lockwood ended up winning that one. 

Holly said goodbye to us, and to Mary as well, promising to visit one last time before Mary left the next day.

Dinner was eaten, and George spoke to Mary, his newfound Scrabble friend, and I over tea. I joined them sitting at the table as George set up the Scrabble board again for the three of us. The game earlier that day had just proved that I was terrible, but I was willing to play with my sister.

She was beating George, and I was, yet again, miserably in last place. 

“Lucy, why did it take so long for your sister to visit?” George asked, surveying the letter tiles he had.

“Well, we’re all busy, George,” I muttered.

“And I,” he said, placing a few more tiles on the board, crossing Mary’s last word, “finally have a worthy opponent in this game.”

“I don’t have anyone to play Scrabble with at home.” She smiled. “I’ll always be happy to play it here.” Mary said it nonchalantly, and if there was bitterness in her voice, you couldn’t hear it.

_Then why was my heart still panging?_

We all went to bed early, Mary to Jessica’s old room, the new guest room, and I went to my attic bedroom. 

* * *

I couldn’t sleep that night. That was normal- two trips to the Other Side and countless ghosts would do that to a person. The ghost lamp was flickering on and off and I tried to let the humming lull me to sleep but it wasn’t working. I sat up in bed and took a glance around my little attic room. 

A pile of laundry sat on the chair, and the skull’s jar, recently moved upstairs, because George’s mother was over and we didn’t feel like explaining that whole situation to her, sat, dull and empty on my dresser. The room was quiet. I was completely alone.

I wondered if Mary was up. Slowly, I got out of bed, put on some socks, and gently opened my door. I padded quietly down the stairs and looked to the guest room, Jessica’s old room, where Mary was now staying. The light was on. 

The crack between the floor and the door was dark for both Lockwood and George’s room. I assumed and hoped they were both fast asleep. 

I knocked quietly on the door and I heard someone shuffle inside the room. Mary quietly opened the door, her eyes wide. She ushered me inside and shut the door. 

“What are you doing here?”

“What are you doing awake?”

Mary crossed her arms and frowned. It felt like we were little kids again, except, instead of me looking up at her, she was looking the slightest bit up at me. She’d been here for a day and a half and it still didn’t feel right. Little sisters generally weren’t taller than their big sisters.

“Couldn’t sleep.”

Mary raised a brow.

“Agency thing, I suppose. We’re always up late.”

Mary uncrossed her arms and they dropped to her side.

“Why are you up?” I asked.

“I don’t know.” She went back and sat down on the bed. “Away from home, I suppose. How did you get used to it?”

I didn’t have the heart to tell her that having my own room and being away from Mam did really help in the end. So I shrugged and walked over and sat down next to her on the bed. 

“Time, I suppose. You get used to it.”

Mary nodded, her fingers fidgeting with the nightie she wore.

“Do you want to make tea? That helps me when I can’t sleep.”

My sister shook her head. “I’m fine, thank you.” It was quiet again.

“Lucy, how often do you have to stay up late for cases?”

“Well, a lot of the time.”

Mary nodded.

“But we sleep in after- and we have some evenings off. How about your job?”

“Oh, it’s the same old thing these days. Go in in the morning, do my job, and go home. Not too exciting. Brings in money.”

We were quiet again, the gentle humming of the night, of the world filled with the undead lying outside the fortifications of 35 Portland Row. Mary swung her feet as we sat on the bed. 

“I’ve been meaning to ask, Lucy.” Mary’s eyes met mine. Ours were always so similar. “What exactly has happened these past two years?”

I tried to smile. “Well, a lot.”

“I’ve gotten quite a few newspaper articles instead of explanations.”

I froze. There was so much I did want to tell Mary. But where did I even begin?

My sister noticed the silence and gently reached out and brushed my bangs gently out of my eyes. They needed a trim, and her fingers brushed the gray strands that had found themselves there, after my trip to the Other Side. They were most obvious in Lockwood and I’s hair- after two separate trips there. Holly’s gray strands were fairly obvious, and George was able to hide them in his sandy hair. 

But they were there. Remnants of a trip that we were certain we wouldn’t come back from. Remnants carried with us wherever we want. 

Did I tell Mary the truth? The truth about what happened. 

“You remember the newspaper article I last sent you? About everything that happened with Fittes?”

Mary nodded, clearly remembering. 

“There’s a lot more to that story. When we went to the Fittes house, we took a journey to the Other Side. It left that.”

Mary’s eyes widened and she looked away.

“Oh.”

We sat in silence for another moment.

“And I’m sorry for not telling you everything in letters. I just thought-” I froze. Did I have a particularly good excuse? “- I thought it would be easier if I explained it to you in person. I guess that didn’t really happen, did it?” Not until now.

“I’ve been so hurt, Lucy. I had missed you for so long and you were finally back.” I was about to open my mouth to respond, but she raised her hands to stop me. “And I understand, Lucy, I do. How Emily and Lily and Mam and me treated you when you visited home- that was horrible. You didn't deserve that. And I'm sorry. 

“But, I was still hurt after you left without telling me anything for a second time. And it still hurts sometimes.”

“I realized that had been treated terribly long before then,” I said, feeling upset too.

There was a retort in Mary eye’s- I could tell. But she likely just bit back her tongue and was quiet.

Hadn’t we all been treated terribly? Certainly wasn’t wrong.

Mary drew her knees up to her chest. “I’ve always been worried for you. You always have been- been in this other world. It calls you and I can’t hear it. My little sister, off to fight ghosts at night, and I was home, worried that I’d lose her.”

My heart panged. It was as if every letter was wrapped up into one.

“And sometimes it’s worse because I know you’re so far away, and I have no clue what’s happening out here in London. We’re not little anymore, I know that Lucy, and yet I still worry.”

“I’m sorry,” I finally said quietly.

“It’s alright. And I’m so sorry too, that’s not fair to throw on you.” She took my hand, and the dim humming of the night surrounded us. In some ways, it felt like we were small children yet again, staying up far too late to tell each other whatever was on our minds.

“I missed you a lot, Lucy.”

“I missed you too.”

We looked at each other for a moment. “Well, it’s getting pretty late,” Mary admitted.

I nodded. “It is. And we have a big day ahead of us, don’t we?” It was true, we had a lot of things planned for the next day. And after the conversation we just head, we would go to bed, and wake up, and things would be different between us. But in a good way.

I got up to go, as it was now in the wee hours of the morning, and I still needed to sleep, but before I could get far, Mary stood up, walked over and hugged me.

And it felt right. 

* * *

Mary and I went to the train station together the day after. She said her goodbyes to Lockwood and Co. earlier after one last breakfast, promising to visit again, and we were off.

There wasn’t too much to say. A lot had been said already.

We arrived and Mary got her ticket, and we found a bench near the platform. There was a comfortable silence there, one last moment together before we were separated by too many miles to count. 

“I’m really going to miss you, Lucy.”

“I’m going to really miss you too.”

And despite all those years that I was fine on my own, my heart did end up missing Mary.

“I just worry about you, Lucy. All the time.”

“Mary, I don’t want you to have to-”

“But I do. Especially after everything that happened.” She looked to her shoes. “I suppose that’s a big sister thing.”

“I got stuck with being the littlest,” I said softly, an old joke between us.

“Well I would have been if you didn’t come around.” Mary looked up again, at me, looking right through me, the sister who knew me the absolute best. “You’re my little sister and that doesn’t change, even if you are a big agent in London.”

“You're still Lucy. And something tells me you’ll always be fine. You’ve got good friends.”

It was true. I was grateful for them every day and I wished that my life would always have them. “I find I still miss you, though.”

“So we write. And we won’t go a year without seeing each other. I’ll make sure of that.”

“You’ll write as soon as you can?”

“Of course.”

We held each other for a moment, knowing what we had said, and what would be said in the future. Mary let go of my embrace and smiled. We walked over to the train.

I watched as the train left the station, and I waved to my sister, though I doubted that she could see me. I watched until it faded out of sight, wrapped my coat tighter around myself, and walked home alone.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I have a couple of ideas in my head for future Mary and Lucy fics, so we will see what the future holds. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed. <3


End file.
